Each Little World

Pond re-design: The final frontier

Before adding the next layer of fill to the pond, Mark put down permeable weed barrier.

The weed barrier is intended to keep the layer of screened top soil from filtering below. 

We took advantage of a big hole partly full of dirt to replicate our portrait taken on the day we started to build the pond in 1997.

Once the soil brought the pond level up high, Mark attacked the stream bed and waterfalls. He took out all the rocks from that area, piling them temporarily on the soil in the big pond. Then he removed as much rubber liner and carpet from the stream as possible. A number of the rocks in this area were set with a bobcat and two people. 

We were lucky to be able to borrow a couple of contractor's wheelbarrows. These are built to carry loads of concrete. Even empty, I could barely lift and move them. 

Mark's assistant, Angelo, had no trouble moving them full of dirt or gravel. Everything had to go from the driveway up an incline into the back. Angelo was amazing in how quickly he could move those barrows. 

The soil layer also got rained on which helped to settle it and let Mark determine if his calculations were correct. 

At this point, Mark began preparing for the final layer: Quartzite chips. He put wooden stakes in the ground, linked with string, to indicate the depth the chips needed to be, tiny surveyor's stakes. 

The quartzite chips needed to be put down without mixing any dirt up into this final layer. We were following the system that Olbrich Botanical Gardens uses in their sustainable gravel gardens. 

Once all the quartzite chips were settled on top of the soil. Mark began to level the pond surface. (It may not hold water but Mark and I still call it the big pond, stream and upper pool.) This was amazing to me to watch as he went the length of the pond on his hands and knees with a long, even board, a level and smaller pieces of wood to smooth the surface. 

He took design breaks to work on placement of the stones around the pond edges. The round stone was moved a number of times, getting it just the right distance from the pebble beach. 

You can see he changed his mind on how this area should be edged compared to the big stone blocks he experimented with above.

This view from the Upper Pool shows the stepping stones that cross it and the top of the stream on the other side of them. 

Even the stream bed has raked patterns. 

The sharply curving rock in the bottom pool of the stream symbolizes a jumping fish. 

Once Mark removed that wide swath of Carexes to make his working "bridge," we decided not to replace any of them. Instead he created a beautiful little path down to the east end of the big pond.

He set a grindstone into the quartzite chips so you could step out into the pond for a different experience than just viewing from a distance. 

Mark's first raking design was a very traditional linear pattern, the length of the pond. 

The big stones in the pond and the curving edges mean there will always be curvilinear patterns. 

This is where the stream meets the pond. 

I love this view from the path between the two hills in the garden. It is a view I rarely noticed when the pond had water. 

This was his first raindrop pattern, which was quickly followed by more elaborate version. 

This was his most recent pattern: diagonal lines across the width of the pond. Though it is a very simple design, it has proven one of the most effective because we can "read" it from inside the house. It also gets lit by east and west raking sun which makes the pattern pop.

Mark began this project on April 4th and finished on Aug. 17 — four and a half months later. It was an almost daily effort; whether with a wheelbarrow or a pen and paper. We couldn't be happier with the result. We celebrated the "unveiling" with an open garden event in early September. It was also Mark's 75th birthday. 

GBBD: 10.15.21

This October post focuses on late flowers and fabulous foliage plants.

We haven't had a killing frost yet and there is not one on the horizon. That means it's been a perfect autumn for Tricyrtis blooms. T. macranta has never put on such a good display. Can't believe the rabbits have not touched it. Maybe that's because they keep munching on fern foliage. 

Tricyrtis hirta 'Miyazaki' has a dramatic arching form. I moved a few stems of this plant to the top of the wall by the stone steps into the front garden where it is beginning to put on a nice little show. 

Tricyrtis hirta 'Lightning Strike' has striped foliage which means it looks great whether it flowers or not. But this year it has so many flowers that the stems are arching out like my other hirta varieties. This one is also much easier to see now that the Upper Pool is filled with gravel. 

I have such a large swath of Tricyrtis 'formosana' along the back of the driveway border that I moved a few plants to the other end of the border. They are doing beautifully, though the original group has been mowed down twice by the rabbits. 

Lots of local gardeners have been posting images of their autumn Crocus but mine just finally appeared. Now I need to make a note to add more while I can remember where they're located. 

These little flowers are being consumed by their neighbors. I may have to dig out some of the Epimedium before it kills them. 

My first attempt at growing Cyclamen has gone so well that I added four more plants last spring. Alas one was dug out and destroyed immediately by rabbits, but the remainder are doing nicely. This is C. hederafolium which you can see I bought for the foliage. 

Not a bloom but a nice autumn surprise, Podophyllum hexandrum reappeared.

Arum italicum 'Ghost' puts on such a spectacular display that I need to move it to a spot where it's more visible. Since it is summer dormant, it is hidden behind larger plants. That means you can barely see it when it is having its big moment. 

We took out a dying Austrian pine last winter to give Cercis canadensis 'Forest Pansy' more light and more room to spread out. It's just starting its fall color.

Not only is it a great Toad Lily season, it is a great mushroom season. Suddenly they're everywhere.

The shady and somewhat moist strip between my driveway border garden and my neighbor's exploded with mushrooms. 

The size, shape and color seem to change daily. 

Love this little guy who found a home for himself in the stone wall at the end of the border. 

To see what's blooming in other gardens, hop over here to the sponsor of this meme. 

Pond re-design: Filling it back up

Mark said he would build a "bridge" over my Carexes that edged the east end of the pond. That way he could move fill material into the empty pond without harming my big sweep of this fabulous ground cover. My notes suggest I only ever planted one Carex siderosticha 'Variegata' on Oct. 1, 1997. Since that was the end of our first summer of building the pond, I may have just bought one as an accent plant. 

No matter how many plants I started with or how many times I've divided it, I never tire of this plant. I also never see it for sale anymore, so I did not want to take a chance on losing any. 

I told Mark they would not survive four months under a wooden structure. So he dug out a big patch of them where his bridge was going to be. I was happy with his response, but it meant I unexpectedly had another planting project that had not been on my radar at all. 

While I tried to keep my Carexes alive and find new homes for them, Mark added all our concrete debris from last year's deck re-do, along with big concrete blocks discarded by our neighbor. 

He smashed some of the larger pieces up to make everything fit as solidly as possible into the deep center pond area. 

He screwed a board at the end of his bridge to stop the wheelbarrow and hold it in place while he tipped it up and dumped debris. 

The next layer was 4 tons of washed pea gravel which was delivered in mid-June. At this point Mark had been working on the big pond or the Upper Pool since the beginning of April. 

The pea gravel layer is the base for the two finishing layers.

Mark or his very able assistant, Angelo, would bring a barrow load of gravel from the pile in the driveway into the back garden. Then they would empty it into another wheelbarrow down in the pond. 

Mark's main job was to then spread the loads around the pond surface.

Though we had a very dry summer, we did get enough rain at times to let us see how water was being absorbed into the ground in this area. 

Almost ready for the finishing layers of fill. 

The next two pictures show what the edge of the pond looked like at this point. Most of the decorative stone from the edges has been put out of the way of the work. 

You can clearly see where the original water level in the pond came to on this rock which was within the pond. 

Mark carefully calculated the depth of each fill layer he was putting in the pond. That way the final layer would be at the level he wanted. 

Meanwhile I found places for my many bins of Carex siderosticha 'Variegata'. 

I had been planting the big slope above the pond since 2019 when I replaced weedy dying grass with a swath of Hakonechloa macra across the lower part of the hill. Though I planned to use Carex pennsylvanica to fill this area, I decided it would be a good spot to add my variegated Carex as well. 

I put some of the Carex along the edge of the path between the two hills and then started filling in down the slope.

I decided the Carex would bring a little visual light to the area while it functioned as green mulch. I also added a couple of my boxwood seedlings that had attained a reasonable size.

This area is where we took out one of the Scots pines on the slope last summer. Sensitive ferns (Onoclea sensibility) had seeded themselves around its trunk. They are lovely when they first show up in spring but want more moisture than they are getting in this spot. Plus they disappear early, making a very visible brown spot.  

I moved a lackluster shrub — Chamaecyparis obtuse 'Hibari' — into the center of the ferns. I am hoping it will get more light here and do better. I am going to move the Sensitive ferns to a new home come spring. This photo (below) is not in the correct order of the process but it shows the areas of Penn Sedge that I planted on the left and right sides of the slope this spring.

The area with the ferns etc. is above the newly planted Carex Pennsylvanica on the left. The variegated Carexes are in a big clump behind the trunk of the Scots pine on the left. The bright greens are Penn sedge higher on the hill and Japanese forest grass across the lower part of the slope.

Next up: The finishing layers

Pond re-design: Getting started on the big pond

The big pond was pretty sad looking this spring, which made it easier to say goodbye. 

Once the Upper Pool was redone, Mark began by emptying the big pond. He used a diverter valve (white section) on the pond pump to send the water off to the side, instead of up to the top pool as we'd been doing for 24 years. 

The water could then be sent wherever in the garden we wanted it via this 75' long blue hose. 

Once most of the water was gone, it revealed all the oxygenator plants, potted water lilies and goop. We were able to give lilies and oxygenators to friends with water gardens. 

Once the pond was empty of water, the faithful pump was pulled. It could move 5,400 gallons of water per hour.

At this point Mark was working in waders or Wellies in the pond trying to get everything out that was revealed as the water disappeared. 

Mark pulled out all kinds of edge rocks and small stones that he wanted to reuse and made piles of them outside the pond edges. He piled muck on the top "shelf" of the pond interior so he could begin to cut out the rubber layer. The rubber and the carpet layer underneath it took a tremendous amount of time and effort to cut through and remove. 

This top of this wall ended just under the surface of the pond water, separating the main pond from the bog. The wall let water into the bog and kept the soil from washing into the pond. These two rocks were standing in the water. 

This shows the limestone wall around the pond. Some rubber has been removed and the carpet layer has been revealed. 

Now the carpet layer is gone in part of the pond and Mark is piling dried out debris in the deepest level of the pond — 3 feet below ground level. 

This is the sand layer hard-packed after being under 7,500 gallons of water for 24 years. The lowest layer is full of organic debris. The area at the bottom of the photo is the former "Pebble Beach" which was just slightly under water at the end with the round stone. 

Mark added the carpet layer when we built the pond as extra protection so tree roots would not puncture the rubber liner. It was clear that all kinds of big roots had been stopped just as he hoped. You can see some rubber still in place under the walls and big bog rocks.  

Emptying the pond was the first step of this project. It was much harder and took longer than I think Mark had hoped. But all through the summer he wore protective clothing and boots, drank lots of water and was as mindful and careful as I hoped he'd be. 

Next up: Filling it in. 

Pond re-design: Back to the beginning

Once the Upper Pool was turned into a gravel garden, Mark could seriously begin work on deconstructing the big pond. It was a complex project that was made easier by the fact that Mark designed the pond himself and was an integral part of the construction team. Here is a brief description of how the pond was built, which will make it easier to understand how Mark took it apart this summer. 

. . . 

Mark did numerous drawings for himself and also to explain to me how everything would work when we originally built the pond. The first two images picture the slope behind the pond with the rocks, pond wall and "shelves" for water plants. (Double click to enlarge images).

This is the view from above with the pond wall, boulders, the shallow pebble beach (at the bottom of the drawing) and the shelves where we set potted water plants like lilies. 

In order for the John Deere trackhoe to make it into the back garden, Mark took down a 40-year-old Arborvitae tree. Its matching partner is still growing at the other end of our house. This was a huge project in itself and much more work than I think Mark anticipated. 

The equipment just fit between our house and our neighbor's fence to the left. 

Here we are at the end of the first day standing in the rough hole which will become the pond. We were so freaked at the mess and so nervous about the whole project we went out to dinner so we didn't have to look at this view. I told Mark if we decided we'd made a big mistake, it was only a hole in the ground and we could always fill it back up. Obviously that's exactly what we're doing — 24 years later!

Large boulders have been set on the hill and the retaining wall has been started. The cement blocks are being used to built the pond retaining wall. The big pile of them are at the foot of what will be the stream to the upper pool. The wheelbarrow is standing on the first "shelf" layer. 

It was a very rainy summer which kept putting us behind schedule waiting for the pond to dry out. 

We sodded the hills to control erosion during the rainstorms and put down wood chips on the path between them. At this point, the pond has been lined with two different colors of old carpet to protect the rubber liner from being punctured by tree roots. 

The pond was double-lined with EPDM roofing rubber. Mark talked to an engineer at the production company to be sure it was fish safe. The roll of rubber weighed over 500 pounds and took 14 friends, relatives and neighbors to lift it and spread it in place. 

Setting the big rocks inside the pond.

An early photo of the finished pond and early plantings. 

A view from a year or two ago before I started replanting the hills with native Carex pennsylvanica to replace the weedy dying grass that had been shaded out over the years. 

We eventually gave up on having fish as they drew raccoons to the pond and the raccoons, in turn, tended to mess with the potted water plants. 

The real losers in our redesign project are Fred and Ethel. They — or their progeny — have come to the pond every spring since 1998. They usually were gone by the 4th of July, but they were an annual treat for us. We loved their antics in and out of the water. When they arrived on March 21st this year, we told them about our plans, but I don't think they believed we were serious.

We're very happy with our big change in the garden, but we will miss this duo. 

Toad lily time

Time for a floral break from the pond.

This year's Tricyrtis (toad lilies) are blooming almost two weeks earlier than last year, according to the dates on last year's photos. Our current warm temperatures mean I am definitely not going to have to worry that frost will get them before they flower.

Tricyrtis 'Empress'

Tricyrtis formosana 'Autumn Glow'

Tricyrtis formosana. I've been growing this plant more than 20 years. A great beauty and a great performer.

My older clumps of Tricyrtis 'formosana' in the shade are almost 3 feett tall. This one, in more sun, is just under 5 feet high.

Tricyrtis hirta 'Lightning Strike' is worth growing for the foliage alone.

Tricyrtis hirta 'Miyazaki' is a low, arching variety whose flowers are more substantial and almost a bit felty looking. The flowers are very similar to 'Lightning Strike.'

Tricyrtis macrantha may be the drama queen of all my Toad Lilies

The stems are loaded with buds along their entire length.

I am out in the garden multiple times a day watching this plant open its first flowers.

The big thrill this year is that the rabbits have not touched this plant. Thus I am able to enjoy its beautiful cascading form without caging.